The present invention relates to the field of vehicle devices, and, more particularly, to a tracking and alerting system for a vehicle.
Motor vehicles, such as passenger cars, trucks, busses, fleet vehicles, etc. are widely used and knowing the locations of such vehicles is often desired. For example, should a vehicle be stolen, it would be beneficial to know the vehicle""s location so that authorities could be promptly and accurately directed to retrieve the vehicle. Indeed, the tracking system could plot the getaway path of the thief.
For a company with hired drivers, it may be desirable to know the driver""s whereabouts during the course of the day. Similarly, a rental car agency or other fleet operator, for example, may wish to know the whereabouts of its fleet of vehicles.
It may also be desirable to track the location of a vehicle as it is used throughout the course of a normal day. For parents of younger or older drivers, for example, knowledge of the vehicle""s location may provide some assurance that the driver is at designated locations and following a prescribed route.
A number of patents disclose various systems and approaches to tracking vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,844 discloses a tracking system including a control center and a mobile unit installed in the vehicle. The mobile unit may send security warnings to the command center via a wireless transceiver. Position information for the vehicle is determined using a GPS receiver at the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,043 discloses a similar system which may send one or more preprogrammed telephone messages to a user when away from the vehicle. The user may remotely access location information or cause certain commands to be carried out by entering a personal identification number (PIN).
The widespread availability and use of the Internet has prompted a number of vehicle tracking systems to also make use of the Internet. For example, TelEvoke, Inc. proposed such a system in combination with Clifford Electronics. The system was to provide notification, control and tracking services via the telephone or the Internet. Users could be notified via phone, e-mail, or pager of events such as a car alarm being triggered. Users could control the vehicle remote devices via phone, web, or PDA such as unlocking car doors. Additionally, users could track TelEvoke-enabled vehicles on the Internet or via the telephone. An Internet map could be viewed by the user showing the actual and prior vehicle locations. TelEvoke offered its services via a centralized fully automated Network Operations Center. To reduce the communications costs, it was proposed to use the control channel of the cellular telephone network.
Many conventional vehicle tracking units include many input and output connections. Accordingly, such units may be difficult to install in a vehicle. This is especially so since the space available to access and connect to vehicle wires is likely to be restricted. Accordingly, errors in the initial installation may occur. Accurate diagnosis of any such errors may be time consuming and add further to the installation costs. Maintenance of an installed system may also be complicated if each connection must be individually checked and rechecked.
Another problem which may be encountered with vehicle tracking units is that tracking may not be possible when the wireless transmitters/receivers, GPS devices, etc., used therein experience fault conditions. Such fault conditions may be the result of poor signal reception or electrical failure, for example. One prior art approach to addressing fault conditions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,204 to Timm et al. This patent is directed to a vehicular emergency message system which collects vehicle position information using a GPS device and transmits this data to a response center via a cellular communications network. Upon turning on the vehicle ignition, the system performs a self-diagnostic check which includes GPS and cellular component diagnostics and, if any fault condition is detected that prevents proper operation of the system, then a message indicative of the fault condition is displayed.
One limitation of the above approach is that since component diagnostics are performed only at vehicle start up, if it is desired to test for poor signal reception as a fault condition then such a system may provide unwanted error messages. That is, poor signal quality may only be a temporary condition that exists at the location where the vehicle was parked, and which will be remedied after traveling a short distance. Moreover, it may not be desirable to have a fault condition message automatically displayed when a fault occurs, as this may alert a would-be thief that the system is not available to track the location of the vehicle once stolen.
In view of the foregoing background, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle tracking unit which provides relatively accurate fault condition diagnosis and related methods.
This and other objects, features, and advantages in accordance with the present invention are provided by a vehicle tracking unit which may include a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a controller. The controller may cooperate with the wireless communications device and the vehicle position determining device for sending vehicle position information to a monitoring station. The controller may also monitor operation of the vehicle, determine a fault condition of at least one of the vehicle position determining device and the wireless communications device based upon a failure thereof over a predetermined pattern of vehicle operation, store the fault condition, and permit retrieval of the stored fault condition.
More particularly, the vehicle may include an ignition, and the controller may monitor the ignition for operation of the vehicle. Further, the predetermined pattern of vehicle operation may include a series of successive operations of the ignition, with each operation of the ignition being for greater than a time threshold. The series of successive operations of the ignition may be greater than two, for example. Also, the time threshold may be about 15 minutes.
The vehicle may also include an ignition switch, and the controller may permit user retrieval of the stored fault condition based upon selective operation of the ignition switch. In addition, the controller may permit remote retrieval of the stored fault condition from the monitoring station. An indicator may also be connected to the controller to provide a local fault indication based upon retrieval of the stored fault condition. By way of example, the indicator may include at least one of an audible and a visual indicator. Furthermore, the controller may determine and store fault conditions of both the vehicle position determining device and the wireless communications device, and the local fault indication may correspond to either the vehicle position determining device, the wireless communications device, or both.
Additionally, the vehicle position determining device may be a wireless vehicle position determining device, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) device, for example. Also, the fault condition may advantageously be based upon a received signal strength, and the wireless communications device may be a cellular telephone communications device.
A method aspect of the invention is for diagnosing fault conditions in a vehicle tracking unit in a vehicle, as briefly described above. The method may include monitoring operation of the vehicle, determining a fault condition of at least one of the vehicle position determining device and the wireless communications device based upon a failure thereof over a predetermined pattern of vehicle operation, storing the fault condition, and permitting retrieval of the stored fault condition.